Robert Iger hadn't flown in from the East Coast just for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. After finishing his meeting with Simon and Amy, he hurried off to Burbank for a production meeting regarding the new season of Cop Rock.
Although the strike was over, Daenerys Entertainment didn't have enough time to pick up any brand-new television projects this year.
However, as long as they could secure the production of the company's four reality shows and successfully complete the five series renewals New World Entertainment had landed last year, Daenerys Entertainment would be in a position to thoroughly consolidate its dominance as a premier television content provider by the end of the fall season.
Burbank.
The original headquarters of New World Entertainment was located on Ventura Boulevard, nestled at the northern foot of the Santa Monica Mountains where film production companies were densely packed. Within a five-kilometer radius sat major studios like Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros.
Yet, compared to a massive complex like Universal Studios which spanned dozens of hectares, New World Entertainment owned only a single three-story office building. For now, it served as a branch of Daenerys Entertainment, housing both the distribution and television departments.
Inside the screening room, a rough cut of Scream still lacking its end credits finished playing. As the lights flickered on, Simon walked to the front. He looked at Amy Pascal, Robert Rehme, and the core members of the distribution team, clapping his hands to get their attention. "Let's start with a light topic. We'll call it the 'Horror Movie Survival Guide.' If you were the protagonist of a horror film and you wanted to live, what do you think you should do? Or more importantly, what should you avoid doing?"
The staff looked at one another, momentarily stunned.
Simon waited a beat before pointing directly at his female executive. "Amy, you first."
Amy thought for a moment before answering, "Never say 'I'll be right back,' because if you do, you're never coming back."
The room erupted in laughter.
Simon smiled as well. "Alright, even though the movie we just watched already mentioned that, I'll give it to you. Anyone else? Robert?"
This was a distribution meeting for Scream.
Robert Rehme had already provided Simon with a marketing plan, guaranteeing at least 1,000 screens for the opening weekend and detailing a strategy targeting the teenage demographic.
Decades of Hollywood experience allowed Robert Rehme to handle such tasks with ease, but his approach was inevitably traditional—it hadn't quite reached the level of innovation Simon was looking for.
Hearing Simon call his name, Robert Rehme racked his brain. "Don't get caught up in a conversation with a stranger on the phone."
"That counts."
Simon nodded and began pointing to others in the room.
After a lively discussion where everyone chimed in, Simon finally spoke. "See? This is an excellent marketing angle. Wes has filmed a truly remarkable movie. From the opening scene where Casey is killed until the very end, it's packed with thrills and suspense. The horror atmosphere is at its peak. But on the other hand, I suspect you all felt that the movie used too many traditional horror tropes. You might even think it's a bit cliché, right?"
Several employees in the room nodded instinctively.
Before anyone could respond, Simon's expression turned serious. "But that's the wrong way to look at it. As film distributors, your job is to discover a movie's strengths. Even if it has none, you must find a way to turn its weaknesses into selling points and sell that vision to the audience. Just now, you felt the plot was repetitive or cliché, but I see it as a USP—a Unique Selling Proposition. We can market this film as a clever homage and a deconstruction of traditional horror tropes. Your next task is to meticulously craft a 'Horror Movie Survival Guide' and link it to Scream. Get it published in newspapers and magazines that our target audience reads. Make it a topic people talk about. Now, who has other ideas?"
Feeling Simon's gaze sweep across the room, there was a brief silence until a young employee raised his hand. "Mr. Westeros, I heard the original idea for this film came from you, but you didn't take a screenwriting credit?"
Simon nodded. "That's correct."
"Then," the young man hesitated before gathering his courage, "we could leak that information. We could say Simon Westeros gave up his credit because he was worried about sparking another controversy like the one with Basic Instinct. That would trigger a massive amount of curiosity from the audience."
"Excellent," Simon said with a nod. "What's your name?"
Relieved by the praise, the young man answered, "Mark Belford."
"Put Mark on the Scream marketing team," Simon instructed Robert Rehme in the front row. He then looked back at the crowd. "Who else?"
With the chance to catch the boss's eye, the others began to speak up eagerly.
After discussing ideas for about half an hour, Simon concluded, "If you're paying close attention, you'll see that things in Hollywood are changing rapidly. This summer, Paramount took a 'saturation release' approach with Crocodile Dundee II and Coming to America, and both were unexpectedly successful. This is destined to be the future of film distribution. The traditional strategy of relying on a slow burn to build word-of-mouth is becoming obsolete. We must adapt. We need to get a movie into the public consciousness as much as possible before it even hits theaters."
Simon paused briefly to let them digest this before continuing. "To do that, we have to abandon traditional marketing concepts. We need to find every possible way to generate buzz without giving away the plot. Stirring up controversy, hyping up lead actor scandals, leaking 'insider' info—these are all highly effective methods. Of course, you must understand that these are secondary. Posters, TV trailers, and magazine ads remain the mainstream channels for building awareness. However, the relationship between the two is like the trunk of a tree and its leaves; you can't have one without the other. You need to flexibly combine these strategies based on the specific needs of each film."
Having said his piece, Simon looked at the room. "I'm very busy. I'm only going to say this once. Whether you understand it and execute it is up to you. Do it well, and you'll be handsomely rewarded. Fail, and I won't hesitate to kick you out of this company. So, always remember: never hold a bias against any film. Once distribution begins, that movie must be the best in the world in your eyes. Your job is to find every selling point it has and push it to the market."
As Simon stopped speaking, the room broke into soft applause.
He didn't waste time. Once they settled down, he adjourned the meeting.
Amy Pascal and Robert Rehme stayed behind. Simon sat back down and took a bottle of water from Jennifer, taking a few sips before turning to Rehme. "Rob, for Scream, Steel Magnolias, and Dead Poets Society, I'm giving you a promotional budget of five million dollars each. I want every cent of that spent by the end of the year."
Before Robert Rehme could even react, Amy gasped in surprise. "Simon, that's too much. Besides, Steel Magnolias and Dead Poets Society aren't even finished yet."
"I've been personally overseeing those films; I know exactly how good they are," Simon said, shaking his head. "And this money isn't just for promoting three movies, Amy. Over the past year, you've surely noticed that whenever there's news about me or Daenerys Pictures, the media swarms all over it. I don't want that to continue. We don't have the time to slowly play nice with the press, so we'll just have to buy them off with cash."
Amy and Robert Rehme immediately understood his point.
Lately, the fallout from Simon firing Rain Man director Barry Levinson hadn't fully dissipated. The media was still occasionally bringing up the Basic Instinct controversy or the way Daenerys's reality shows had undercut the writers' strike.
The foundation of Daenerys Entertainment was too shallow. They hadn't had the time to build broad connections across various media channels, which led to frequent PR fires.
To counter this, Simon's strategy was brutal but effective.
By dropping five million dollars in advertising for each of the three films, he wouldn't just be promoting the movies—he would instantly turn Daenerys Entertainment into a major client for North American newspapers, magazines, and television networks.
As long as that status remained, any future negative headlines like 'Simon Westeros Interferes with Directors' would be weighed carefully. Before a newspaper or TV station ran a hit piece, they would have to consider whether it was worth losing the lucrative advertising contracts Daenerys Entertainment placed every year.
In a capitalist society, the most effective way to control the media is through capital itself. So-called 'good relations' or personal friendships were often illusions. The reason the Big Seven studios or giants like CAA could maintain tight ties with the media and keep scandals buried was simple: mutual financial interest.
Today was Thursday, August 12th.
Simon planned to fly to Australia the following Monday. After finishing his work for the day, he made a point to discuss the trip with Amy.
Since he was going to Australia, he wouldn't be back in just a day or two. Confirming the filming locations for Batman, negotiating tax rebates with the Australian government, coordinating production details, and visiting Janet's family it would take at least a week by conservative estimates.
However, before Simon could leave for Australia, something else happened quite suddenly.
The next day, Friday, August 13th, Forbes magazine officially released its 1988 lists: the Forbes World's Billionaires and the Forbes 400.
In Simon's memory, the release dates for the Forbes lists were always a bit erratic—sometimes in March, sometimes in the fall, occasionally at the end of the year.
Of course, those were minor details.
Before this year's list was published, the Forbes company had contacted Simon, hoping he would cooperate with their data collection. Due to a deeply ingrained instinct to keep his wealth private, Simon had reflexively refused, and Forbes hadn't pushed the matter.
Now, the sudden results of the list not only caught Simon off guard but stunned the entire world.
In the new annual ranking, Forbes estimated Simon's personal net worth at 3.1 billion dollars.
In thirty years, a personal fortune of 3.1 billion dollars might not turn many heads. But in the eighties, it was a staggering, highly visible amount of wealth.
To put it in perspective, the man at the top of this year's global list was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the head of Japan's Seibu Group, with a net worth of 19 billion dollars. There were only two people on the list whose wealth reached 10 billion—the other was also Japanese, Minoru Mori. With the Japanese real estate bubble yet to burst, this tycoon who owned 68 office buildings in Tokyo was worth 18 billion.
After those two "ten-billionaire" titans, the third-ranked Reichmann family of Canada saw their assets drop sharply to 9 billion. [TL/N: Jewish Family]
In the United States, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, was the wealthiest man in the country with 6.7 billion dollars, ranking seventh globally.
And then... there was Simon at 3.1 billion.
On the global rich list, this fortune placed him at sixteenth. If that ranking wasn't eye-popping enough, within the United States, Simon's personal assets trailed only Sam Walton's 6.7 billion and media mogul John Kluge's 3.2 billion.
He was ranked third!
From 1986 to 1988, in just two short years, a young man who had just turned twenty and had no family background had suddenly used his 3.1 billion dollar fortune to leapfrog almost all the traditional wealthy American families that had spent decades or centuries accumulating their wealth. He was the third richest man in America and the sixteenth richest in the world.
How could people not be shocked?
After the list was published, the first reaction of many was that it was absolutely impossible.
However, the statistical basis provided by Forbes was hard to argue with.
Among Simon's assets, the value of his technology stocks—which could be easily verified through public markets—had reached 1.8 billion dollars during the Forbes one-month tracking period.
Furthermore, with the consecutive success of projects like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Basic Instinct, and the completed acquisition of New World Entertainment, the valuation of Daenerys Entertainment had surged.
The sheer profitability of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire alone—even accounting for an eventual dip in popularity—was projected to net Daenerys Entertainment no less than 500 million dollars over the next three years. After integrating New World, Daenerys had not only become the top second-tier film company in North America, trailing only the Big Seven, but had also leaped into a significant position as a television network content provider.
Synthesizing various data points, Forbes settled on a 1.5 billion dollar valuation for the Daenerys Entertainment Group.
To make this valuation more convincing, Forbes had even conducted a survey. As a result, out of 100 Wall Street fund managers consulted, 96 stated they would be more than happy to invest in Daenerys Entertainment at that valuation.
Additionally, Forbes valued Simon's various real estate holdings and private company investments at 250 million dollars.
This figure was also grounded in fact.
When Westeros Co. had sold off its Motorola shares for over 300 million dollars, half was used to increase its tech stock holdings. The other half, roughly 150 million, was funneled into private investments in other sectors. Moreover, the 100 million dollar loan Westeros Co. had recently secured from Wells Fargo was also being used for private investment and personal spending.
Added together, it totaled exactly 250 million.
Finally, after subtracting the total debt of 450 million dollars held by both Westeros Co. and Daenerys Entertainment, Simon Westeros's personal net worth came out to exactly 3.1 billion dollars.